Equipment that captures signature and other information drawn on a screen by a user is known in the art. For example, many businesses are beginning to adopt electronic equipment that captures a customer's signature to verify a credit card charge purchase. At a store or other point of transaction, the customer signs his or her name with a stylus on a screen surface. The screen surface responds to signals from the stylus or to force from the stylus. The signature data are collected and signal processed within the equipment for transmission, typically by telephone link, to a central office. One such signature collection product is the PenWare 2000, a commercially available product marketed by PenWare Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif.
At the central office, pre-stored data representing a genuine signature for the user are compared against the new data to confirm or deny authenticity of the new signature. The central office then transmits signature authenticity confirmation or denial back to the equipment at the point of transaction. If desired, the same central office and information link can be used to signal the customer's present credit limit back to the point of transaction as well.
Many prior art systems use active capture technology, that often is relatively complex and expensive, and are not very robust. Such active capture technologies include use of an infra-red ("IR") emitting active stylus and a signature capture pad that includes an array of IR detectors, or magnetic stylus and capacitive-based signature capture pad.
Such equipment should be backward-compatible with existing signature and data-capture equipment, and should be compatible with the software command sets embedded in such existing equipment.
Some signature capture systems include a sub-system for reading the magnetic track on a credit card, a debit card, or the like. Generally, to store more data on such cards, the industry is moving toward providing such cards with three strips of magnetic media on which data may be stored. Unfortunately many prior art systems do not accommodate more than a single strip magnetic card reader. Further, prior art techniques for providing user security when using such cards frequently are limited to the use of personal identification numbers ("PINs"), which numbers can become lost or compromised.
In the area of computer architecture, current design has evolved to accommodate standard buses, standard expansion slots and ports, and standardized add-on components. Unfortunately, prior art signature pad capture systems have tended to exhibit a closed architecture design that does not readily provide for standardized input and output signals and peripheral devices.
When used in a commercial environment such as a store, such systems do not appreciably help the merchant in terms of reducing paperwork and expediting cash flow. Although at the moment of payment the merchant temporarily has the user's complete attention, such systems do not readily enable the merchant to promote further and additional sales, for example by displaying on the system appropriate advertising and/or rewards, such as coupons for discounts on present or future purchases.
Thus there is a need for a signature capture product and system that preferably employs backward-compatible standardized architecture, that can interface with a variety of input/output and other peripheral devices. Preferably such device should read and write to a card bearing three magnetic stripes, and/or to a smartcard, and use a passive stylus. Further, such product should have the ability to provide security beyond that associated with PIN identification. In addition, the system should be useable to display merchant advertising and to issue rewards to the user, commensurate with the nature of the immediate purchase. Finally, such system should be useable to facilitate instant transaction payment to a merchant, while minimizing paperwork, and should be able to assist a user in maintaining computerized financial data relating to transactions made using the present invention.
The present invention provides such a product and system.